The Bolotnaya case No. 8 (September 16 - 22) digest september 17 - september 19 Plenty of victims, but no perpetrators On Tuesday, September 17, a Moscow OMON (special police force) ocer Denis Mukhin began his testimony. According to Mukhin, tear-gas was sprayed in his face, several stones hit his helmet, and several protesters landed punches on his body armor. However, Mukhin is named in the case as a witness - not a victim. Memorable bare chest OMON ocer Denis Mukhin in the court Photo by A.Baroshin Answering judge Nikishina’s question whether he recognized any of the defendants, Mukhin stated that he did not. The case materials include a screenshot of the video with a bare-chested young male in white shorts, similar to defendant Denis Lutskevich in appearance. The screenshot has a caption, signed by Mukhin: “Young man I mentioned during the deposition, who threw a stone at a police ocer”. Lutskevich's lawyer Dmitry Dinze asked if Mukhin had really signed the photo, and Mukhin conrmed that the signature was his. Dinze asked if Mukhin knew the last name “Lutskevich”, to which Mukhin replied that he did not remember such a last name. According to Mukhin, he went through three or four videos with an investigator, not seeing himself in any of the videos, but recognizing a man, he remembered only because the man was bare-chested. Prosecutor Kostyuk moved to read out the transcript of Mukhin’s interview with the investigators, to establish that Mukhin recognized Lutskevich as a man who threw stones. Defence attorney Dinze pointed out that no line-up was conducted, and that the witness did not remember the last name of the man in the screenshot. Nevertheless, the judge permitted the transcript to be read out. In the interview, Mukhin said that he saw a bare-chested man throw something (but could not say if it was a stone or a bottle), but did not see if that object hit anyone. page 1 Stay alive On Thursday, September 19, police ocer Ivan Kruglov appeared before the court. According to the investigation, Andrei Barabanov caused Kruglov physical pain by kicking him through the body armor. Kruglov himself does not remember his assailants. He testied that he was assaulted by a group of demonstrators, but “cannot recognize any of the people in the video recording, due to being extremely stressed out at the time… only thinking how to stay alive”. It is worth noting that Kruglov did not have any documented injuries connected with the incident. He also did not recognize any of the defendants in Ocer Ivan Kruglov the courtroom. Photo by A.Baroshin september 18 Loss in Andrei Barabanov’s family During lunch break on Thursday, one of the defendants - Andrei Barabanov was informed that his grandmother passed away. “Andrei’s grandmother who brought him up has died. Barabanov’s lawyer learned about this about an hour and a half ago. The trial was postponed until Tuesday. This is the sort of situation when you are absolutely powerless. He is weeping in the aquarium [slang for glass box, where the defendants are kept while in the courtroom] and you can not even give him a hug” – blogged another defendant Maria Baronova. Andrei Barabanov is 23. He is charged with repeatedly striking a police ocer, and has been under detention since May 2012. Before being arrested, he lived with his mother and girlfriend Katya. He was a freelance artist. Just a few weeks ago - on September 5, the mother of another Bolotnaya prisoner Mikhail Kosenko died as well. Mikhail learned about his mother’s death from a television program almost a week later, because his sister’s letters detailing his mother’s illness and death were censored by prison ocials. Zamoskvoretsky court judge Ludmila Moskalenko refused to allow Mikhail to attend his mother’s funeral. page 3 september 17 Appeal merge by ECHR European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) merged seven appeals from Bolotnaya prisoners and gave priority to the case Appeals by Vladimir Akimenkov, Yaroslav Belousov, Leonid Kovyazin, Artem Savelov, Andrei Barabanov, and Mikhail Kosenko have been joined under the name of “Vladimir Georgievich Akimenkov and 6 others v.Russia”. Bolotnaya prisoners complain of illegal detention and inhuman conditions in jail. The European court has already started requesting information in connection with the case, writes attorney Dmitry Agranovsky in his blog: “The ECHR has submitted a set of ECHR general questions, as well as questions relating Photo by Roman Blazhko to individual defendants to the Russian government. The cases of Akimenkov and Belousov have garnered the most questions. There are a total of 26 questions.” The Russian government must respond to the ECHR by January 17, 2014. september 20 Lukin after Bolotnaya arrests Russia’s Human Rights Commissioner Vladimir Lukin appeals the arrests of Vladimir Akimenkov and Yaroslav Belousov The ombudsman made two supervisory complaints for warrantless arrest and extending the term of detention to the Presidium of the Moscow City Court. Left Front activist Vladimir Akimenkov has been in detention since June, 2012. He has almost lost his sight – optic atrophy leaves him with only 20% vision in one eye and 10% in the other. And in detention his eyesight condition is worsening. Vladimir is charged with aimed throwing of plastic agpole towards the police and thereby participating in “mass riots”. Yaroslav Belousov is Political Science student at Moscow State University. Vladimir Lukin, photo by Boris Yamshanov page 4 He was also arrested in June, 2012, presumably, for throwing a lemon at police ocers. Yaroslav is married and has a two-year-old son. Recently he was placed in the prison hospital because of blood pressure problems. Earlier, a complaint by ombudsman Vladimir Lukin helped bring about the release of Nikolai Kavkazsky from detention. Kavkazsky was placed under house arrest instead. Following Lukin’s appeal, the Supreme Court ruled that continued detention must be supported by factual evidence rather than general phrases of speculative kind, such as “defendant may ee justice”, “defendant may continue criminal activity”, etc. (all of the Bolotnaya case detentions and their extensions were justied in such fashion). september 22 Rock o the prison Rock musicians hold a concert in support of Bolotnaya prisoners A number of famous musicians played at a charity Moscow concert, benetting the Bolotnaya prisoners. The list of participants included: Yuri Shevchuk and his band DDT, Concert lights, photo by A.Baroshin Andrey Makarevich, Bravo, Vezhlivy Otkaz, Noize MC, Kira Lao, and Zorge. Video messages in support of political prisoners were recorded by Boris Grebenschikov (Aquarium) and Diana Arbenina (Nochniye Snaipery). The amount raised at the concert was over 1 mln rubles (appr. 30,000 US dollars). The proceeds will be go towards covering the fees of the lawyers involved in the Bolotnaya trial. Concert poster page 5 Boris Grebenschikov (Aquarium) "When people stand trial, the notion of a “trial” implies a degree of fairness. However, when one group of people is judged by one set of criteria, and released, while another group of people is judged by another set of criteria, and put in prison for the same deeds, it seems unfair to me. And any unfairness undermines the foundations of society itself. Therefore, let us make it so that the trial of the people who had gone to the Bolotnaya square is fair, and those people who were there by accident are not kept in prisons, while those who intended to be there, get a fair trial.” Boris Grebenschikov, screen from video Diana Arbenina (Nochniye Snaipery) "Never in the past 20 years have we witnessed a scale of lawlessness, such as the one facing those who wish to express their political views today. I am talking about people who join political protests, only to nd themselves in prison as a result. This is not just me making things up, because right now there is a great number of big, rather appalling, criminal cases against people, who are being deprived of the right to see their families, their children, and no one knows when this will end, and what the end will be. I call upon the people of our country to choose peace, kindness, respect for the law. I realize that we live in a cruel world, but if we all tried to remain human, Diana Arbenina, screen from video we would have been honest, with ourselves at least. I am not calling anyone to the barricades, but I am calling on people to stop and realize that we should be living a normal, good, democratic country." Andrey Makarevich (Mashina Vremeni) "Imprisonment of a person is always a tragedy. Even if the person has been incarcerated for a good reason, and justice was served. Today, when we have criminal proceedings opened, and very timely too, against many opposition leaders, you and me, we know far too well just what is happening in reality, don't we: they are sending a message to all of us: Don't stick your head out! page 6 They are shamelessly reminding us of the common wisdom from the Soviet times. First, "So, you think you’re the smartest one here?" Second: "So, you deserve better than others?". And third, the most important professional motto: "Just give us a person, and we’ll nd what to charge them with". Some people I meet believe that this all has nothing to do with them – after all, they are keeping a low prole, do not stick their heads out, and do not go against anyone. They are wrong. This has to do with all of us. Once the machine gets moving, it steamrolls everyone, quite indiscriminately.